With Over 95% of the Vote Counted, Orange Parties Still Hold Lead

As of 11:15 Kyiv time, the Central Elections Commission (CEC) had tallied over 95% of the vote in Ukraine’s snap parliamentary elections. The Party of Regions currently holds 34.18% of the vote, followed by the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc with 30.82%, Our Ukraine – 14.27%, the Communists – 5.36% and the Lytvyn Bloc with 3.97%. The Socialist Party, which abandoned the orange parties following the last election and joined with Regions to form a coalition, is near the 3% barrier to enter the Rada with 2.93%. Yesterday the President called for an investigation of polling stations in several eastern Ukrainian regions that had failed to turn in their ballots and were suspected of attempting to rig the vote in order to get the Socialist into the Verkhovna Rada. Nick Piazza: Despite calls for investigations into vote tampering in the east by the orange parties it looks like these results will not be too seriously contested in court because as it stands now the Socialists will not be able to get into the Rada. The Orange parties had been concerned that if the Socialists got over the 3% barrier Regions would be able to form a coalition with the Communists, Lytvyn and the Socialists and we would have likely seen several lawsuits connected to the vote counting delays in eastern Ukraine.